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Thursday, October 23, 2008
Farmers in Misamis Oriental vow protests vs Phividec
CAGAYAN DE ORO -- Farmers affected by the US$2-billion Hanjin shipyard in Villanueva town, Misamis Oriental have organized themselves and vowed to fight any efforts to uproot them from the land they tilled.
Farmers from Barangays Balacanas and Tambobong organized themselves with the help of the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and vowed they will put up a struggle if the Philippine Veterans Industrial Development Corporation (Phividec) will drive them away.
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Rogelio Prugella, KMP leader, said security guards of Phividec uprooted farm crops planted by the farmers in the 441-hectare land of Hanjin shipyard last October 13.
He said the action of the security guards caused tension among the farmers.
Phividec had paid the farmers to vacate the land where Hanjin shipyard would have been constructed early this year, but some of them complained they did not receive their payment.
Tambobong village chief Delilah Abellanosa said the payment was stopped after Phividec discovered that some farmers have been paid twice already.
The Provincial Government of Misamis Oriental is distancing itself in this controversy.
"Governor Oscar Moreno is very much aware on what's happening there but it's the call of Phividec to settle that matter," Maricel Rivera of the Misamis Oriental Provincial Press Office said.
Rivera said the Provincial Government hopes that the row between the farmers and Phividec will not affect the ongoing negotiations between Malacañang and Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Corp. Inc., which pulled out last April.
She said they are optimistic that Hanjin will eventually reconsider their earlier decision and restart the construction of their shipyad by next year.
Rivera said that would give the Misamis Oriental Provincial Government more time to finish the construction of the relocation site of residents of Barangays Balacanas and Tambobong who were affected by the shipyard construction.
She said the Misamis Oriental Provincial Government is helping Phividec in the construction of access roads, installation of electricity and water system in the relocation site.
Early April, Hanjin Philippines president JS Shim said they might rethink their investments in the country in the wake of negative media publicity brought about by the company's construction of a housing project inside Subic, where it is building a $1.7 billion shipyard facility and a the permit-related problems on its second-and bigger-shipyard project in Misamis Oriental, valued at $2 billion.
The problems -- brought about local opposition and by the company's non-compliance with building and environmental permits -- ended on Hanjin's withdrawal from the project early this week and followed by the damaging claim of Tagoloan Mayor Paulino Emano that Hanjin offered him P400 million worth of contract to soften him up.
Emano had issued an order stopping Hanjin's site clearing operations in his town, where part of the shipyard complex will be located. The mayor repealed the order last Wednesday after he said he was "scolded" by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Although Malacañang officials have announced the problems between local official and Hanjin have been ironed out, the company had yet to respond on the government's conciliatory gestures. (ALR of Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Dumaguete. (October 23, 2008 issue)
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